by Thomas E. Mails

BOOK REVIEW BY PEGI EYERS

Thomas E. Mails was chosen by the Hopi Elders to deliver their prophecies and warnings to the world. These millennia-old prophecies address the contemporary crises such as environmental degradation, fraudulent politics and unhealthy technology that have the potential to lead to collapse and massive change. Additional instructions are given by the Elders on averting disaster and acquiring spiritual equanimity. Survival is hopeful for the people who are connected to Earth's rhythms, those that blend with nature and celebrate all life. The material in The Hopi Survival Kit is fascinating and the keepers of this wisdom are beyond reproach, and the value of the traditional Hopi worldview is without question equivalent to a World Heritage Treasure.

However, Thomas Mails' delivery couldn't be more jumbled, pompous or paranoid. The rhetoric, tedious opinions and manipulative language found in The Hopi Survival Kit do not do justice to the beauty and truth of these ancient teachings. If only they had been presented concisely with a clear progression of ideas, not as a miscellany of bad metaphors, constant repetition and finger-pointing. Mails' claims that elements of Christianity are identical to Hopi cosmology are ridiculous - as if a culture in a different time and place could not have developed a completely unique and original relationship to the Great Mystery! Interpretations of a divine order or Creator without male monotheism, hierarchy, patriarchy or control DO exist.I wish it were otherwise, but the significance of the Hopi's message is compromised by Mails' inept writing skills and his lack of objectivity. In the book he discusses his own erratic writing style (!?) and claims that expediency is the only thing required for the delivery of the Hopi message, not competent writing. Well, I disagree. Concise unbiased writing can give a book credibility and the potential to reach far more people. Perhaps a re-write by a brilliant First Nations author would give the indigenous knowledge (IK) of the Hopi the wider exposure it deserves! It is time for IK to be highly valued, held sacred even, for these Hopi teachings can contribute to the restoration of sanity to the human race, and balance to the entire Earth Community.